Okay, I don?t expect everyone out there to be as obsessive as I am about fiction. How obsessed am I? Well, lets say that I look upon Yomiko Readman?s apartment with nothing but envy. I read every day. I spend way too much of my paychecks on books. I am a book geek.

So here?s a roundup of some of the author?s who repeat along my bookshelf. a good chunk of these books fall right into the subversive catigory. especialy the Hienlien stuff ^_^ Some of these authors have entire rows in their honor at casa de Hotwire. Maybe some of y?all will find this useful, likely many of ya already own most of them ^_^

Robert A Hienlien: find every book you can by this man. Don?t expect to agree with everything he says, but I found every book to be a hell of a read. Especially seek out the following: Friday, Stranger in a Strange Land, Starship Troopers (the movie can fuck itself with a proboscis) Job: a comedy of Justice, and The Moon is a Harsh Mistress. Grubles from the Grave is interesting- especialy for the insight it gives on a successful author?s day-to-day home life.

Anne Rice: okay, I don?t consider every book here a treasure, but I had a hell of a good time reading the first few Vampire books. The witching hour stuff was cool, but be warned it starts getting more than a little weird around book two.

Dean Koontz: while I?ve read nearly all of this man?s work( and I recomend just about every book) one in particular needs to be mentioned- Dark Rivers of the heart. By and large my favorite- among a lot of favorite stories- by this man. Probably one of the most chilling of all his thrillers, and done without the use of a single supernatural nasty.

Elmore Lenard: get shorty. Out of sight. LA confidential. Wild things. Liked the movies? Get the books. (in fact that?s just damn good advice all around ^_^)

Stephen King: if you need to ask? I cant help ya.

L. Ron Hubbard: I?ve spent many a night laughing my ass off while reading Mission Earth. Not everyone?s cup o tea, but funny stuff if you?re in the mood for it.

Christopher Golden: check out Saints and Sinners, and then if you can find the whole thing, the buffy novel?s he co-wrote were pretty good too: The Gatekeeper Trilogy.

Jack L Chalker: still working through this guys? stuff, but if you can find The Quintara Marathon series (Demons at Rainbow Bridge, Run To Chaos Keep, 90 trillion Fousts) you?ll find one of the best treatments of psionics that I?ve ever seen.

Garth Ennis: he hasn?t done any novels to my knowledge, but the man has written some DAMN fine stories- Hellblazer (which I fear is about to be raped by Hollywood) Preacher (reminding people that the slogan was ?don?t FUCK with Texas? before the PC crowd got a hold of it) and The Punisher (I understand a good chunk of the movie this summer is based of his run)

Neil Gaiman: my first contact with this man?s work was the book Neverwhere. If you want a starting place, I recommend that one. However, don?t say I didn?t warn you, because you might find yourself dropping massive funds for Sandman, The Books of Magic, and everything else this man has published.

Terry Pratchett: I think the most amazing thing about Diskworld is that Dragons, Dwarves, Witches and Wizards aside, the place STILL makes more sense than our reality.

Allen Moore: this man writes comic books. He writes comic books that blow everything else on the stand out of the water. Watchmen. League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. From Hell. Amazing work all of it. (and hey, while I?m thinking about LOEG, am I the only one here who?s a wee bit jealous that Moore gets to publish HIS fanfiction? ^_^)

Anyway that?s a sample of my personal library. Not including manga, movies, Anime, comics, and the random assortment of other weird shit that lines my bookshelf.

Happy hunting ^_^

_________________"I never made any great claims on my sanity"
Hotwire
Chain Lightning Studios

In the move to my current rented residence for College life, most of my books were packed---however, I managed to snag a few of my favourites.

Neil Gaiman: American Gods, most yes. I've still neglected getting around to neverwhere, but i'll borrow that this summer along with coraline from a friend.

Terry Pratchett: Amen for all you said in your post, Hotwire...

Pratchett AND Gaiman (specifically, Good Omens): Brillig. Just...brillig. Lots of bloody brillig-ness to go around. ^_^ Can we tell i hold this one in high regard---A must read for someone looking for a philosophical religious read that still manages to coerce a kjortle out of you every couple paragraphs.

Douglas Adams (HGTTG--Complete works): Yes.

And a few other assorted fantasy novels hanging around on my floor (Coldfire Trilogy by CS friedman, The Fionavar Tapestry by Guy Gavrial Kay etc... I've noticed that I prefer british authors...)

Problem is, that I mostly read fanfiction... Mainly because I can't afford many books... But as for books, when there are good ones, I read them...

I used to read any of the Star Wars books that came out.. early on they were really good... then they got to the point where they started sucking bad... So I still like the first couple of generations of them...
Just before the New Jedi Order books started coming out, they all went to crap...

Otherwise, I don't keep a lot of books... I'd love to, boy would I...

I've got the two Red Dwarf novels... the ones that have that British Sci-fi comedy alongside them.. those are pretty good, read them a couple of times...

Mainly, though, what I have falls here...

RPG manuals.. Boy, some of those make good reading... DnD mostly, but I have others... one of the most interesting layouts in an RPG book is Aberrant by White Wolf.. thing reads like a comic half the time, and the rest like newsfeeds....very interesting backgrounds though...

A book by Brian Aldiss called Starship. Seems backwards till you get on in the book... Starts like a wilderness fantasy and ends in a sci-fi climax... great book... though very VERY hard to find a copy of.. (I don't have one anymore.. I'm looking for a good quality new one...)

Larry Niven Novels... There's a guy that can write... thing is, though, he's got his degree in mathematics.... and most of his books have heavy scienctific/mathematic backgrounds... they're all good though... the Ringworld Trilogy, as well as The Integral Trees and The Smoke Ring... I've also got The Magic Goes Away and A Hole in Space.. the latter being mostly a collection of short stories....

Oddly enough, though, the book that I consider my favorit happens to be a little known book I found rummaging through my mom's old sci-fi book collection... Alexei Panshin's Rite of Passage. I've worn two copies out, and I'm on my third one... Not everyone may like it, but I really did, and I've recommended it a lot...

Wish I could afford to have more books.. Reading or computer coding is how I spend all my free time... hardly watch tv anymore... just read...

Now, I don't actually own all of those, but to those of you who can't afford to buy many books, there's this special building in a lot of towns where they just give 'em to you, and the condition that you bring 'em back when you're done. Heck, some cities even have more than one!

As to fiction... meh. Used to read a whole lot, but it got to the point where, about three or so chapters in I knew how it was going to end.

Once the accuracy of my predictions reached about 80-90%, well, it just wasn't very much fun anymore.

Meself, I'm mostly a manga and comic geek, with a few notable authors thrown in.

The Short List:

Masamune Shirow: Ghost in the Shell, all hail the one true king of cyberpunk
Kia Asamiya: His work on Batman, Xmen, Steam Detectives, Silent Mobius and Dark Angel have made me want to write comics.
Robert A. Heinlein: Fear the Mobile Infantry, Fear it!
Stephen King: I'm still afraid of St. Bernards and trucks with the Green Goblin's mug on them
R.A. Salvatore: You won't see or hear Drizzt Do'urden until it's too late

_________________They say 'Give me a long enough lever and I will move the heavens and the earth'
I say 'Give me a long enough crowbar and I'll break into Heaven'

Thu Mar 18, 2004 5:39 pm

DoyleMisfit

Chibi-Czar

Joined: Tue Mar 16, 2004 12:47 amPosts: 332

LOTR
The Complete X-wing Series
Printed Version of Higher Learning *that was a shit load of paper, you owe me fiss!!! *
Hitchhikers Guide..
Timeline-Chricton *if thats how you spell his name*

uhh thats all I can think of right now

_________________"Imagine if every Thursday your shoes exploded if you tied them the usual way. This happens to us all the time with computers, and nobody thinks of complaining."

tolkien: anything and EVERYTHING. its like a religion.
terry pratchett: anything this many does is wonderful.
neil gaiman: as hot wire warned...i did indeed drop loads of cash and bought everything that this god of a man has ever written. mmmm...
anne rice: loved the first few books of the vampire chronicles...not so much after that
garth nix: now it SAYS at the bookstore that his books are for "young adults" but conflab it... i love them anyhow. sabriel is the one book i think i've read more than LotR

_________________"There’s nothing more attractive than loss of control to someone who stays in control all of the time..."

Thu Mar 18, 2004 11:38 pm

Turambar

Chibi

Joined: Wed Mar 17, 2004 11:48 pmPosts: 11Location: Alabama, USA

Growing up with a mother with a master's degree in English Lit, I was never short on reading material. Author's that I read and own a lot from:

Stephen King: I went a long time without reading anything by King. I got into the DarK Tower books a couple of years ago and have been reading other stuff.

Michael Swanwick: The Iron Dragon's Daughter, Stations of the Tide, Bones of the Earth, etc. A great author.

William Gibson: I've been a fan of Gibson for a long time. Virtual Light and Idoru are personal favorites.

J. R. R. Tolkein: For whatever reason, I enjoy The Silmarilion more than The Lord of the Rings.

Star Wars novels: I read most all of them, but some are much better than others. The New Jedi Order book Traitor was unusually good.

J. K. Rowling: Of course.

Samuel R. Delany: I've only readDhalgren, but it's great. I need to track down more.

And so much more, but I'm tired of racking my brain for good examples.

_________________Jenseits von Käse und Wirklichkeit

Thu Mar 18, 2004 11:42 pm

Caduceus-kun

Chibi

Joined: Fri Mar 19, 2004 4:24 pmPosts: 5Location: The end of linear time

For those of you who like the real classic "Good vs. Evil" storylines, I highly recommend the Word and the Void trilogy by Terry Brooks, composed of Running with the Demon, A Knight of the Word, and Angel Fire East. I've never met a Terry Brooks fan who's even heard of these books, but as someone who really doesn't care for Terry Brooks most of the time, I absolutely love these. I don't quite know what that indicates... possibly that Terry Brooks fans have no taste?

_________________"That is not dead which can eternal lie,
And with strange aeons even death may die."

David and Leigh Eddings - this couple have some of the most unusual magic systems I have seen.

Marion Zimmer Bradley - The Darkover series - 'nuff said.

Terry Pratchet - All hail the City Watch!

Terry Brooks - Funnily enough I have read the Word and the Void series, loved it.

Laurell K. Hamilton - The Anita Blake series.

David E. Weber - In the Hands of the War God and the Honor Harrington Series.

Anne McCaffery - The Dragonriders of Pern series and the Talent series.

_________________Anger isn't necessarily the best thing in the world. But it sure does help at times.
Tash's Stash

Mon Mar 22, 2004 7:12 am

Tozetre

Chibi-Czar

Joined: Thu Mar 18, 2004 10:50 pmPosts: 3467

Phoo... books.
First, I agree about Gaiman. And Pratchett. Chalker's possibly the best not-dead sci-fi author I've read, though I still prefer golden agers like Asimov. Douglas Adams is The Man, and if you haven't check out his Dirk Gently series (starts with Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul), and you like Gaiman, I suggest it.

Also w00t for Gibson, but for the love of God, add (Neal) Stephenson! Read Cryptonomicon. There's a kinda-new series out by Tad Williams that KINDA fits in the cyber-genre. The books are River of Blue Fire, City of Golden Shadows, and Mountain of Black Glass. Williams is the guy who wrote the specatular Green Angel Tower fantasy series. Also for fantasy, check out G.E.E.Martin's Song of Fire and Ice. Best not-dead fantasy author I've ever read, bar none. Blows away even Williams- and does a dance on Robert Jordan's head.

Now, with that out of the way, what else do I read?

Lewis. Narnia and the Ransom series.
Tolkien of course.
MacDonald, George; Victorian fantasy author. Lewis Carrol wierdness without the drug references. Phantastes I think was the title of one of 'em, and Lilith.
I've been meaning to read these books for a while now;
Seutonius, The Twelve Caesars. History, but cracking good stuff.
Augustine, City of God.
most of the stuff Mista_B mentioned. :P
I'm getting an excuse to read a bunch of it for class, at least.

_________________Why carry a gun? Because a whole cop would be too heavy.

Mon Mar 22, 2004 9:38 am

Tenryu

Chibi-Czar

Joined: Mon Mar 15, 2004 8:24 amPosts: 473Location: Sydney, Australia

some friends call me a book worm cause i read so many novels but i don't really own much..... but i did start young in reading fantasy stuff....

anyway some of my list i have

Terry Pratchett; the funniest i ever read from a novel, want to get all his books but i'm afraid i don't have that kind of money

Tamora Pierce; u probably never heard of her, she writes fantasy novels for young teenagers. Her stuff got me into reading english novels

Traci Harding; writes scifi novels, the stories interesting enough but when it gets long the writting drags thus making the later parts of a book not as good as the first half...

Stephen King; i know this guys great and all, but amazing the only thing i have and read from is Hearts in Atlantis...

J.K Rowling; POTTER! need i say more?

and the Myst Series... i loved the game when i was younger and went to purchase the books cause i never beat the game...

cause i got a lot manga and stuff.... but where not here to name those....

_________________with out love
one cannot be a devil
but only a false angel

If I had a nickle for every book I've ever read, I'd be a millionare by now, and never want for anything again. I was the most-sought-after member of my elementary school classes whenever there was a reading contest, as I read at least three things a week. Of course, I got barred from the contests within a few weeks, but that's beside the point.

I literally have a LIBRARY of books. An entire room lined with bookshelves, all full. And from so many authors I can't even think of half of them right now, though a lot of them have been mentioned. For now, let's just leave it with this short list:

Clive Cussler: Dirk Pitt is the James Bond of the sea. Anything having to do with a shipwreck, he can find out. Did you know Lincoln was actually abducted by the Confederates just before the end of the war, and his double was killed to hide the switch?

Frank Herbert: 'nough said

Tamora Pierce: Has gotten me through many a gloomy day with her light-hearted magical lands.

Jack McKinney: only a pen-name, but Robotech is still one of my favorite series. Hell, it was so big in the US it spawned comics, new stories, and a video game! Not bad for a bizzare amalgam of three anime series.

Michael A. Stackpole and William H. Keith, Jr.: Two of the best battletech authors out there. Giant robots are always cool, these two make it even better.

Terry Goodkind: Not in the Library yet, but his stuff will be soon. The 'Sword of Truth' series is an incredible epic.

Rumiko Takahashi: I plan to eventually get everything this woman ever wrote. Ranma 1/2 was my introduction to Manga, and I've bought every volume released in the US.

Clamp: Cardcaptor Sakura = t3h c|_|t3

Myung-Jin Lee: Ragnarok, based on the only MMORPG I'l ever play.

Hitoshi Tomizawa: Alien Nine is possibly the single most depressing anime I'll ever see. No, not possibly, just IS.

Last but not least-Kiyohiko Azuma: Azumanga Daioh, the most random and bizzare anime I've ever had the pleasure of seening, and that includes FLCL AND Excel Saga.

Well, that's all I can think of right now, but I'm sure there are others.

Marion Zimmer Bradley: "The Mists of Avalon"- Come on, it's about a sword and a magical island that disappears into the mists...it's a fantastic book about King Arthur.

For that matter, T.H. White's "The Once and Future King" and "Le Mort d'Arthur" by Sir Thomas Malory are excellent too.

Shakespeare...'nuf said. However I will add that "Hamlet" is probably one of the greatest plays ever written, and includes just about anything you could ever want in a piece of literature. Also recommended is the Reduced Shakespeare Company's "The Complete Works of William Shakespeare: Abriged!" play script. Funny as hell.

Stephen King is of course, a master. I've read a few of his works, but my favorite is "The Eye of the Dragon". "Carrie" is good too.

J.K. Rowling: She's the richest person in England for a very good reason.

Ed Regis: "Great Mambo Chicken and the Transhuman Condition". Yes I read it...It's a great book too...This book, and the ones by the next author are what bolstered my love of science.

Dan Brown: "Angels and Demons" and "The Da Vinci Code". Read "Angels" first, the references to Italy/Rome and Vittoria are explained that way. "Angels" actually came first, and I loved it from the beginning. Lots of stuff about new science and technology and symbolism.

Tolkien is a given.

Victor Hugo: "Les Miserables". It's a good book, just never write a paper about it. Especially not about how it's all about social commentary.

Manga:
Yu Watase: Right now I'm currently caught up in her Fushigi Yuugi, Ceres the Celestial Legend, and Alice 19th. They're all great.

Naoko Takeuchi: I will always be a fan of Sailor Moon, I think. The manga is phenomenal, and the characters seem to fit better. Rei, for instance, (who happens to be my favorite senshi) gets a lot more attention. And she's not nearly so bitchy or annoying. Mina's leadership qualities shine through a lot more as well. Ami shows much more of a connection to her powers, as does Mako, and you can actually see how Usagi grows up and could become the queen of the world.

Shakespeare...'nuf said. However I will add that "Hamlet" is probably one of the greatest plays ever written, and includes just about anything you could ever want in a piece of literature.

I adore that about Hamlet! I wrote three papers on that damn(and I mean that in a good way ) play last year! One was about the use of ghosts and mysticism, the other about the archetypal hero, and the other (and my personal favorite) was about the homosexual overtones of the play and how they reflected the time period. Hehe, the last one was the most fun, because it royally pissed off my uber-conservative teacher.

_________________"There’s nothing more attractive than loss of control to someone who stays in control all of the time..."

Isn't Hamlet wonderful? I had to write 7 essays on it...it was a group project, but they made me editor, so I basically had to fix everybody else's essays too. One was about the strengths/weaknesses of the female character, one was about mysticism, one was a treatment of Hamlet's character, mine was to discuss all the characters and define their places in Hamlet's life, ie: as literary foils and stuff. For an exam once I wrote about how Shakespeare wrote it as social commentary regarding the state of the British monarchy...And now I have to write one on 4 of the movie versions of Hamlet. I love the Branagh version. Anyway, I know exactly what you mean.

_________________~~
If we shadows have offended, think but this and all is mended. That you have but slumbered here while these visions did appear...

Wed Mar 24, 2004 11:55 pm

Binky

Moderator of Pain!

Joined: Wed Mar 17, 2004 12:06 amPosts: 215Location: Calgary, AB

Hamlet is great. I don't know what it is that grabs me, but when I studied it in HS I read through it 4 times, even though the instructoer decided to just have the class watch a couple of the productions instead of actually reading it. We spent twice as long on Grapes of Wrath as we were supposed to. One thing I learned from that novel...the turtle really did head west....it was just SO amazing....

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